Yves Mettler

Questions on the mutuality, dependence, and the constant exchange of categories of the public and the private, outside and inner world concern Swiss artist Yves Mettler (born in 1976). He focuses with this open work on urban structures that present a multilayered object of investigation as materialized knots in the maelstrom of global information flows. As visualized conceptual processes, his works thematize situations of the urban present: its ideological background and utopian promises. Sculptural and linguistic layers interweave to form poetic ensembles and at the same time attest to a critical gaze of current systems of power and representation. Yves Mettler constructs determinedly and perseveringly his bare sets and expands his mise en scene using language. He analyzes the situation and makes visible what is at stake in social-political themes between individual self-questioning and external perception.

His works have been shown at BAWAG Contemporary, Vienna (2009), Kunstverein Medienturm Graz (2008), Künstlerhaus Palais Thurn & Taxis, Bregenz (2008), Shedhalle Zürich (2006 and 2007) and Kunstmuseum St. Gallen (2004 and 2006).